Rating: C-
Dir: Kevin O’Neill
Star: Rib Hillis, Katie Savoy, Robert Carradine, Akari Endo
The question is, where do you go from Sharktopus? The answer is a sequel, naturally, which throws another cross-habitat monstrosity into the mix, taking a barracuda and combining it with DNA extracted from a pteranadon [again, because… why not?]. While the sharktopus – and I trust I’m not spoiling this for anyone – was destroyed at the end of the original, the inevitable egg-sac survived, and was found by marine biologist Lorena Christmas (Savoy), who raises it herself. Meanwhile, another mad scientist, Dr. Symes (Carradine), creates his creation, and naturally, it also runs amok, after an East European hacker breaks into the system and hijacks the control mechanism, with the aim of selling Pteracuda to the highest bidder.
There’s only one thing which can stop it, and so Symes sends his minions out after the sharktopus, currently living the quiet life as an attraction in a shithole Mexican sea-park. It’s just not as much fun, and illustrates nicely the gap between “bad” and “so bad it’s good” cinema. There’s just too much going on here involving the human element, which is generally the least interesting thing about these movies. You’ve the military, the hacker, the theme-park, a TV crew covering events… It all just interferes with what we want to see, which is sharktopus attacking things. And the pteracuda is actually a disappointment: I was hoping for a more blatant combination of the two, but what you have here is basically a pteranadon that can swim.
I do kinda like the kaiju-esque aspect, with sharktopus now being (more or less) on the side of mankind. But, just as in Godzilla, there’s too much time spent on stuff which is not in the title – there’s even a Conan O’Brien cameo, for no logical reason – and that’s the main difference which makes this not as entertaining as the original. Still, I must confess to a sneaking anticipation for the alleged third part, Sharktopus vs. Mermantula…